A Rasta’s Guide to Living Well

Q: “Do you have a lot of possessions? Do you have a lot of money in the bank?”

A: “Possessions make you rich? I don’t have that kind of richness. My richness is life, forever.”

This quote is from the now-famous “60 Minutes” interview with Bob Marley, and the quote still resonates today. Do possessions make you rich? They certainly didn’t for Bob, and the same goes for our friend Lion, a through-and-through Rasta who lives near the Pantrepant Farm. Lion doesn’t have much, and he lives a very simple life, but it’s exactly the life he wants. This freedom is immeasurable for Lion—and there’s no amount of money that would change his mind. We sat with Lion and asked him a few questions on what it means to live well as a Rasta, and what he had to say was very insightful—for Rastas and everyone else.

On what it takes to be a real Rasta:

“To be a Rasta man, you have to be a true man with your words, a true man to the planet, a true man to the living, and a true man to everything that is good. Anyone can be a rasta, but you just have to be certain you’re on the right track. You must do the things that are right.”

On being thankful:

“You must give all thanks to Jah.”

On smoking ganja:

“It’s good for your heart, it’s good for the soul, it’s good for the mind. It keeps you straight and alive, yah know.”

On natural living:

“It’s good when you live a natural life. You just flow like the natural river. But, you have to be right with yourself. You have to forget about the system.”

On living off of the land:

“Yah, man, we living off of the land, man. We live off of the fruit: oranges and melon, green banana, ripe banana, plantains, cassava, cocoa, yellow yams and Irish potato. We have some nice little fruit like tangerine. All these things are natural. These are the real things, dem. But the number one thing is coconut water. I don’t go to the doctor’s; I just live a natural life man.”

On secrets to living a long, healthy life:

“As I say it, yah know, you just have to try your best to live clean to Jah, and eat i-tal (a diet commonly practiced by Rastafarians). You have to set everything in the right order. A real serious rasta man doesn’t eat things like salt, beef or pork.”